This novel virus has us locked away and I’ve been feeling a bit frustrated by this all. Not that my life personally has changed a lot. Being a SAHM(stay at home mother) and having fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety I stay home often. Getting out of the house is usually a battle that I fight to ensure my children get what they need from life.
The girls and I have been on complete lock down since the 18th of March. I have even been rationing what little meds I have left so I can avoid going to see the doctor. We haven’t left our house or back yard until this past Saturday, when I finally got past my anxiety, we packed our lunches and drove up a forestry road to get some much needed fresh air and exercise. It was wonderful getting away for a little while.
Kevin had been sick prior to our family locking down, so we had already been low contact with the world. Unsure of how his essential employee position would be maintained, or not, and knowing that Kittie’s Kostumes would be having massive changes to its calendar we used the first couple days of his illness to discuss our position for the next several months.
It turns out there is more available work for Kevin than we thought there would be, although we never know from week to week how much he’ll actually be doing. Both a blessing and a curse.
I’ve learned some things about myself through all this, such as the fact I am immuno compromised. Not because of the fibromyalgia itself but due to what comes along with it. Needless to say that is worrisome but not as much to me as not being sure how to tell if I’m having a fibromyalgia flare up or symptoms of Covid-19. Milder symptoms include wide spread body pain, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, intense headaches. I already feel like crap most of the time and these are all symptoms of a flare up.
We broke our isolation for a day on April 7th. After 3 weeks of complete isolation but like 4.5 weeks if you count the little contact from before. It was my daughter’s fifth birthday and she was so heartbroken that she couldn’t have a large party at a local rock climbing and play place that I went through painstaking measures to ensure a small backyard, social distancing party could be held for her.
We ensured to have a sanitization station prepared with hand sanitizer and some kawaii face masks from my shop and I wiped down the outdoor toys a number of times with disinfecting wipes. All guests were scheduled to come scattered throughout the day to ensure we could keep distancing as best as possible and asked to only come if they had been isolating. No one was to go inside unless it was for the toilet. It was a challenge keeping the kids far enough apart while they played but it was doable. A total of three children came through the day for a maximum of 2 hours. Three grandparents also came for very short time in their distancing outfits. We had pizza with some guests and cake with others. It wasn’t an ideal set up but we did the best we could.
It was wonderful to see those who did come and Sanura even said it was her best birthday ever. I’m so glad she enjoyed it and that that stress is over. But now we are on lockdown again for at least a month as I am so anxious that something could have spread. I’ve been kicking myself, mentally, for taking the risk.